Ian Moss – Petrol Head (1996)

Before this album, Mossy’s big album was Matchbook, his first solo album after Chisel. But his follow-up offering, World’s Away, seemingly saw him go slightly off the boil. After taking a rather long hiatus he came back strongly with his third solo album, this quite aptly titled offering of high-octane, growling guitar rock-n-blues.

Petrolhead is a back-to-basics, stripped back affair of hard-fueled blues rock, a much more rough-shod ride than the polished Matchbook, without any obvious pretensions or pandering to the mainstream with calculated ‘hits’. Moss simply lets his hair down, throwing in occasional lyrics while mostly allowing that big axe to do most of his talking. No wanky effects or molly-coddling producers, it’s just balls, going all-out with a fretboard massacre of rollocking licks, wailing solos with sinister-&-lazy attitude where you can pretty much hear his sweat drip. This is a sound that fans of his old school Cold Chisel days will totally love, as will anyone who simply enjoys listening to solid working-class guitar blues.

Can’t really point out a weak track here, everything is just delivered up-front. Standouts? Well, the hairs on my neck prickle to the slow-paced bluesy meanness of “Heaven”, his smooth vocals offering a sensual 5½ minute dual with the guitar. Title track “Petrolhead” is also strong, painting the imagery of Moss’ adolescence, growing up “in a petrolhead town”, and “Made Her Mine” is a rocket-fueled rockabilly whack between the eyes. “80 MPH” also warrants mentioning, another slow ride of Chisel-style attitude. This is an unbelievably overlooked album.

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